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Are books – electronic or not – becoming “fringe media”?
Kevin Kelleher of GigaOM believes that “books are becoming a fringe media.” I say: true for non-fiction, not so much for fiction.
February 2010 / 2 min.
Six more of the best WordPress plugins
I admit it. I’m a WordPress plugin junkie. I’m continually updating, adding, removing, and adjusting the list of plugins I have running this site. Here are six of my current favorites.
February 2010 / 2 min.
Wait, Second Life still exists? And universities still use it?
I was surprised to read in the Chronicle of Higher Education that universities are still using Second Life, a “virtual worlds” system I honestly thought died in 2007. No one I know ever used it. Why is this, considering the people I know tend to be early adopters of pretty much everything technological?
February 2010 / 3 min.
Highlights of the Google Books settlement hearing
Norman Oder updates us on the arguments at the Google Books settlement hearing. I found the several following points made by speakers at the hearing particulary interesting.
February 2010 / 2 min.
Who supports and who opposes the Google Books settlement
At the Google Books fairness hearing, who supports and who opposes the settlement?
February 2010 / 2 min.
Terms of use for application programming interfaces (TOS for APIs)
Terms of use are critical. Most allow for the revocation of access if the API provider decides to do so. If that happens to you, you may have little recourse. Make sure you understand the terms before you build a business on top of someone else’s API.
February 2010 / 5 min.
Research preview: the historical case for vaccination
I’m researching how the scientific and medical community presented and developed itself such that the public moved from rioting to cooperation with vaccination.
February 2010 / 5 min.
Should police need probable cause to request mobile-phone location data?
There are currently no firm standards on the kinds of Fourth Amendment protections that should apply to cell phone tracking data. This is becoming an issue as GPS and other tracking technologies have been added to cell phone to satisfy E911 requirements, and as police agencies have discovered the potential benefits of mobile-phone location data.
February 2010 / 3 min.
You do not get an “A for effort” with copyright
In reaction to claims that copyright exists to protect creators because of the effort they’ve put into their work, Techdirt points us to a Supreme Court case that clearly says otherwise. History and precedent back it up.
February 2010 / 4 min.
Dear Starbucks and AT&T: fix your WiFi!
Technology on the road has a reputation for being finicky. Some of this difficulty is unavoidable. But other technology challenges are easily remedied through decent design and forethought.
February 2010 / 5 min.